If you want to get found by recruiters then you need to understand how they think! Bullhorn Reach released their 2013 North American Social Recruiting Activity Report and this information should help you understand how to improve your job search:
Who Is Bullhorn Reach?
In case you haven’t heard or seen this name before, Bullhorn Reach was launched in February 2011 and was designed to help recruiters leverage social media to source candidates more effectively. Over 170,000 recruiters subscribe to this service to tap into social recruiting.
The Bullhorn Reach report is based on data gathered from over 160,000 North American recruiters in 2012 and it examines their social media activity across the “big three” social networks — LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
There’s a lot you can learn from recruiters (both in-house and third-party) and how they source candidates!
LinkedIn IS Where You Need to Be
LinkedIn is the g0-to source for recruiters sourcing candidates because it produces results:
64% of recruiters used only LinkedIn for social recruiting in 2012, compared to 48% in 2011, and with good reason. Jobs posted on LinkedIn received more views than jobs posted on Twitter and Facebook put together!
It is a no-brainer for recruiters – LinkedIn gets results!
What This Means For Job Seekers
- You have to have a LinkedIn profile and it has to be keyword rich!
- You need to connect with recruiters on LinkedIn.
- You also have to monitor your LinkedIn homepage regularly if you want to see the jobs recruiters you are connected to are promoting!
What Types of Jobs Are Being Posted using Bullhorn Reach?
- Information Technology
- Finance and Banking
- Healthcare
These are the top three categories of jobs being recruited for using Bullhorn Reach however, there are other types of jobs recruiters are sourcing via social networks. As jobs become harder to fill, you can probably expect more activity across all job types through social recruiting.
What This Means for Job Seekers
- No matter what occupation you are in, you need to be on social networks, specifically LinkedIn.
- Expect to see jobs moving away from the job boards (or change) and move towards social networks or become even more integrated with social networks.
- Learn how these social networks work! What you can lock down, how to interact, where to find jobs, etc.
Is Bigger Better?
Recruiters with bigger networks did get more applications, but not as a percentage of their connections. So which is better, quantity or quality? That is a question this study doesn’t address. However, Bullhorn Reach’s 2013 North American Staffing and Recruiting Trends Report found:
92.9% of respondents stated that LinkedIn produced candidates they were able to place.
Overall this is a numbers game. Your potential message/reach is only as big as the number of people in your network. If you only have 50 connections, that limits the number of people who know about you (what you are saying, doing and looking for.) This isn’t a good thing if you are actively job searching. Cast a wide net in a sea full of fish!
What This Means for Job Seekers
- Your chances of gaining a recruiter’s attention by interacting with them on Facebook or Twitter may allow you to stand out since they aren’t interacting with as many people on these networks.
- Recruiters want to connect with you and grow their network! It becomes their own private, more targeted distribution channel for jobs.
- Learn the “rules of engagement” on all 3 social networks so you can maximize your presence on all three (at least during your job search).
Important Reminders:
- LinkedIn is a must-use resource for job seekers to discover jobs being advertised by recruiters.
- Job seekers MUST connect with recruiters on LinkedIn (whether they know the person or not) in order to quickly find the shared opportunities. You must also understand how to work with recruiters, so please read this post!
- Individual recruiters might have social network preferences, so don’t give up on Twitter and Facebook (yet!). Just be sure they represent you professionally.
